Sports

Wolves prepping for nationals despite missing ACAC playoffs

FILE PHOTO
GPRC Wolves outside hitter Megan Koch returns a serve as Mckenna Wolstenholme looks on in recent Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference play at GPRC. The Wolves finished the season fourth in the ACAC North division but missed out on the post-season tournament because the Augustana Vikings, who finished fifth in the standings, get the nod as the tournament host team.

The GPRC Wolves women’s volleyball team ended the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference regular-season schedule with a two-game split against the NAIT Ooks at the GPRC gym last weekend.

“It was a good season with a learning curve for the team with a lot of new players coming in but they worked really hard,” Wolves head coach Chantelle LaMotte said at the tail end of practice on Wednesday morning.

That’s right, the team is still practicing but more on that later.

According to Wolves libero Mckenna Wolstenholme a part of the education curve was learning how to evolve into a diverse team, with all players having the ability to play multiple positions.

“We worked hard and we tried a lot of new things,” Wolstenholme said. “We have a lot of people who had to play different positions so there’s adversity in being a diverse team. We took on that challenge and I think we did an awesome job of it.”

Taking it a step further, the former Peace Wapiti Academy player likes what the team possess in terms of offence and defence as the multiple options will make it more difficult for the opposition to gameplan for a static lineup.

And what’s not to like about that theory?

“I like we can come into a practice and people can be thrown into different positions, or at different times in the games, even, and it doesn’t matter who’s in there, we’re still playing as a team and playing for each other,” Wolstenholme said.

The team will now head back to the campus gym to practice and scrimmage for the next 13 days, waiting for the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association women’s volleyball national championship tournament to begin.

The eight-team tournament, which includes five provincial champions, two wildcards and the host, runs March 8-10 at the GPRC gym.

Of the 13 women on the Wolves roster 11 are either first or second-year players and there must have been some learning going on.

The club went 4-8 in the first half but ended up 6-6 in the second half and won three of its last four to close the season in a positive frame of mind.

The Wolves finished fourth in the ACAC North standings but didn’t qualify for the post-season tournament because the Augustana Vikings are hosting and they get the fourth and final spot, despite finishing behind the Wolves in the standings.

Still, the head coach thought the Wolves deserved their due credit for the achievement.

“We did finish top-four in the north which would normally, give us a spot at provincials, it’s disappointing in that regard, but, at the same time, the players did earn it,” LaMotte said.